2:38 Post a comment 0 Now playing: Watch this: Share your voice Can big tech actually be broken up? Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg participates in a Presidential Candidates Forum at the NAACP 110th National Convention on Wednesday. Bill Pugliano / Getty Images Pete Buttigieg, a 2020 Democratic presidential candidate and former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, is big tech’s latest critic. His new economic plan, called “A New Rising Tide,” seeks to implement gig worker rights and gender pay transparency, according to a blog post published Friday.Buttigieg said he’ll support the “ABC test” to make sure workers aren’t denied minimum wage and their chance to unionize. The ABC test determines that a worker is “free from employer’s control,” is “performing work outside of the employer’s usual course of business” and works as an “independent business in the industry.” Among other initiatives, the former mayor said he wants to pass the Paycheck Fairness Act — currently awaiting the Senate’s approval — which would ban an employer from using an employee’s past salary history to determine pay. His policy comes at a time when other Democratic presidential candidates have rebuked big tech companies. Tulsi Gabbard on Thursday sued Google, alleging the search giant was “intermeddling” in the election. The $50 million suit claims that Gmail had sent Gabbard’s campaign emails to spam folders. Sen. Elizabeth Warren has been championing the breakup of tech giants, including Amazon, Google and Facebook.”More than half of workers in Google’s offices do not share in Google’s success because they are domestically outsourced temps and contractors,” Buttigieg stated. “Millions of Uber and Lyft drivers lack basic protections because they’re misclassified as independent contractors.”Google has previously come under file about its treatment of employees. Last year, a New York Times report said Android creator Andy Rubin was accused of sexual harassment by a co-worker. Uber, meanwhile is grappling with its own leadership board. In the past two months, the company has lost three board members, including Arianna Huffington. The ride service says it’s been working with drivers on plans for compensation.”We’ve been at the table with stakeholders offering a plan that would guarantee drivers an earnings floor tied to minimum wage plus expenses; a robust package of portable benefits they can access no matter which rideshare company they drive for,” said a spokesperson for Uber. Google, on the other hand had stated in April that it would require companies that supply its temporary and contract workers to provide full benefits and a $15 minimum wage. Tags Politics Googleread more

×Actors Reveal Their Favorite Disney PrincessesSeveral actors, like Daisy Ridley, Awkwafina, Jeff Goldblum and Gina Rodriguez, reveal their favorite Disney princesses. Rapunzel, Mulan, Ariel,Tiana, Sleeping Beauty and Jasmine all got some love from the Disney stars.More VideosVolume 0%Press shift question mark to access a list of keyboard shortcutsKeyboard Shortcutsplay/pauseincrease volumedecrease volumeseek forwardsseek backwardstoggle captionstoggle fullscreenmute/unmuteseek to %SPACE↑↓→←cfm0-9Next UpJennifer Lopez Shares How She Became a Mogul04:350.5x1x1.25×1.5x2xLive00:0002:1502:15 Popular on Variety So what’s next for Viacom? A major merger perhaps, possibly the long-rumored partnership with CBS? Bakish seemed dismissive. “Our plan is fundamentally based on the assets we have,” he said. “We don’t need a transformational deal.” Instead, Viacom was focusing on smaller deals through acquisitions of companies like Vidcon and Awesomeness.Instead of merging to compete, Viacom is looking to diversify its distribution. “We are active in the OTT space,” he said. “We are also active in the SVOD space through our third-party production business.” A growing part of this strategy will be to lean into mobile, said Bakish. “Mobile distribution really is the catalyst that will turn this whole decline of television argument on its head.”One of the factors that will drive mobile forward will be 5G, but Bakish also looked further ahead to driverless, 5G-connected cars. “The last vestige of video-free consumption is the automobile,” he said. In the future, cars could add many more viewing minutes, just like the bedroom TV did many years ago. “That’s coming,” quipped Bakish.Bakish added that the company was also looking to strike new distribution deals, including its partnership with Facebook to stream MTV shows, to keep the company’s brands “top of mind” for consumers.And finally, Bakish also hailed the new platforms as a frontier for advanced advertising, calling out Dish and Sling TV as examples. Dish was still mostly serving up ads the traditional way, whereas Sling’s ad business is a lot more targeted. “All the Sling ads are dynamic,” he said. Viacom CEO Bob Bakish isn’t ready to celebrate victory just yet. “I wouldn’t ever say mission accomplished, and certainly not in the changing world we are living in,” Bakish said during his keynote conversation at Variety’s CES Summit Wednesday.That’s despite the fact that Bakish has overcome quite a few challenges since taking over the helm of the media company in late 2016. “The company was in the need of a turn-around,” he recalled. Two years ago, Paramount lost a whopping $0.5 billion, and Viacom was struggling on other fronts as well.Two years in, the company’s movie business is doing a lot better. “Paramount is in a fundamentally better place,” he said. This is also manifesting itself in the bottom line: “We’ve had seven straight quarters of earnings improvement,” Bakish said.read more